THE STUDY ON IMPULSE CONTROL AS A CHILD AND FUTURE LIFE OUTCOMES :

OPTION TWO : They could have two marshmallows if they were prepared to wait fifteen minutes for them.

The children were then left alone with the marshmallows.

RESULTS :

Some children gave in to temptation immediately and some managed to defer gratification for a short amount of time (but not the full fifteen minutes).

HOWEVER : About one third of the children were able to defer gratification for the FULL FIFTEEN MINUTES (in the main they distracted themselves from the temptation to eat the marshmallow by playing or singing to themselves, according to the researchers).

TWELVE YEARS LATER, a follow-up study was carried out on these same individuals. The results of this follow-up study were :

The individuals’ PERFORMANCE ON THE IMPULSE CONTROL TEST (as described above) was more highly correlated with future life success than any other measure, including socioeconomic status and I.Q.

In other words, on average, the children who managed to wait the full fifteen minutes before eating went on to have significantly more successful lives (as defined and measured by the twelve year follow-up study) than those children who were unable to do so. The fact that the level of an individual’s impulse control appears, according to this particular study, to be a better predictor of that same individual’s future life success than either their socioeconomic status or I.Q. implies that how well we are able to control our impulses is of vital importance.